


Many Happy Returns

by CatKing_Catkin



Category: Tiger & Bunny, Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Undertale Fusion, Bonding, Developing Friendships, Eventual Fluff, Frisk is a Sweetheart, Gen, Gender-Neutral Frisk, Hopeful Ending, Introspection, Mute Frisk, Pacifist Frisk, Parent Toriel (Undertale), Parenthood, Post-Undertale Pacifist Route - "I want to stay with you.", Spoilers - Undertale Pacifist Route, Talking, Undertale Monsters on the Surface, past friendships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-22
Updated: 2017-06-22
Packaged: 2018-11-17 11:34:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11274588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CatKing_Catkin/pseuds/CatKing_Catkin
Summary: Written for the prompt "any sort of reaction from any hero in a 'verse where Mt. Ebott was right outside Sternbiild and the Pacifist ending just happened."-----It was a bright summer day, and Kotetsu was watching the shop because Muramasa hadn’t had a day off in three months. Watching the shop had always been an eminently boring job, however. So in a way it was a relief when Mr. Yanagisawa from two doors down came bursting through the front door to tell Kotetsu that there were monsters coming down the mountain.In which Kotetsu discovers that some old stories are real and that Kaede has a friend she never told him about.





	Many Happy Returns

It was a bright summer day, and Kotetsu was watching the shop because Muramasa hadn’t had a day off in three months. Watching the shop had always been an eminently boring job, however. So in a way it was a relief when Mr. Yanagisawa from two doors down came bursting through the front door to tell Kotetsu that there were monsters coming down the mountain.

Mt. Ebott had been the subject of old myths and scary ghost stories for centuries, ever since Oriental Town had been an actual town rather than a distant suburb of Sternbild. Everyone knew that there were supposed to be monsters sealed beneath it. Local kids terrifying each other with stories of what might happen if the monsters ever got loose, or what happened to kids who climbed a little too high up that mountain, was a fine old tradition. But Mr. Yanagisawa was almost as old as Kotetsu’s mother, and something in his eyes told the former hero that this was not a drunken dream.

It still didn’t feel entirely real, as he took off running towards the western edge of town. But Kotetsu took off running anyway, even burning a precious minute of power to get there a little bit faster.

“Hi Dad!” The cry dopplered up from behind him before fading into the distance ahead of him. “See you over there!” By the time Kotetsu realized that it was Kaede running on ahead, it was much too late.

“Kaede, wait!” he cried anyway. “It could be dangerous!” But could it? Would it? There couldn’t _really_ be monsters coming down the mountain, could there? Not like the stories. Not skeletons and dragons and horned white demons.

But whatever was waiting up there, she had five minutes of power to work with and he didn’t. There were no other NEXT at school for her to change powers with throughout the day. It was a cold, cruel day when Kotetsu’s fondness for hugging his daughter before sending her off to school turned out to be the very thing that let her put herself in danger.

Other people were streaming in the direction of the mountain, looming up against the bright summer sky as it always had. Kotetsu ducked and darted through them, taking care not to shove until his power faded out. All the while, he wasn’t sure what he would see until he did. Then he reached the front of the throng of people, and stumbled to an ungainly stop as the reality of the situation hit him full force in the face.

There were monsters coming down the mountain.

There were a lot of them.

There were skeletons. There was a man made of fire. There was a tiny dragon. A fish person. A _robot_. And leading them all were two of the hulking white horned monsters, like the sort that were supposed to have killed a village child all those centuries ago.

“No way…” Kotetsu breathed, letting his gaze roam over them all. What were they going to do? What was _he_ going to do? The town was at his back, huddled and tense. When he glanced over his shoulder, he saw that several were holding weapons, anything from guns to garden hoes. But none of them were advancing just yet. Kotetsu was the town hero. They trusted him to make the first move.

He just hoped he proved worthy of that.

Fortunately, Kaede had stopped just a few yards ahead of the main bulk of the crowd, just as Kotetsu now had. They stood together, father and daughter, heroes both, and watched the monsters come. He risked darting an anxious glance down at her. Her eyes were huge and round, one hand pressed over her mouth.

“I don’t believe it,” she whispered.

“I know.” Kotetsu reached down to squeeze her shoulder. “I’m not sure I do, either. But it’ll be okay, sweetie,” he said, hoping it wasn’t a lie. “I’ll protect…”

But Kaede didn’t seem to hear him at all. “Frisk!” she cried out, suddenly breaking rank and hurrying forward. “Frisk, it really _is_ you!”

Kotetsu could only stare after her, dumbfounded, until he heard a rustling from the crowd behind him. That got him to move, to whirl on the throng and snarl: _“Don’t you dare.”_ Whatever was going to happen, he didn’t want a mob forming or a shot fired while Kaede was between them. When they seemed mostly cowed, he turned back and hastened to catch up.

Then he saw perhaps the most impossible detail of the group of monsters, one that shock had made him miss at his first glance.

They weren’t all monsters. There was a child, a human child maybe a couple of years younger than Kaede, stepping out from the shadow of one of the horned monsters to wave at his daughter. Kaede, meanwhile, seemed to realize just what she was running towards at the last second. She stopped just shy of the group, suddenly anxious, looking up towards the smaller of the two lead monsters. Kotetsu was surprised to see that monster seem to smile, before placing a hand on the small of the other child’s back and nudging them forward.

Frisk seemed to need no further prompting, and neither did Kaede. They met and they hugged and Kaede dissolved into a torrent of babbling. “Oh, it’s so good to see you! When I heard what happened I was so scared but you’re back and _wow_ …”

“Yeah. Wow,” Kotetsu said softly, walking over to join his daughter, her friend, and their visitors. As he drew nearer, he slowly started to take in other details about the monsters. The smaller of the two white monsters was wearing a worn purple dress. The smaller of the two skeletons was wearing…carpet slippers? The dragon wasn’t a dragon – she was some sort of lizard person in a lab coat. The figure made of fire was wearing quite a nice suit. There was what seemed to be a giant mouse in an even more giant scarf. There were large frogs, a bizarre reindeer, and what looked for all the world to be slime monsters like something out of an old RPG.

They didn’t really look all that scary, now that he took a proper look at them. They were undeniably strange, true enough, but they certainly didn’t look like he would have imagined from the fiercesome tales of a demon who once escaped only to brutally murder a child centuries ago.

No, the child they’d brought with them seemed happy and unhurt. They weren’t saying much, but Kaede could have that effect on people. Then Kotetsu realized that they _were_ speaking. They were just signing rather than using their mouth. When had his daughter learned to understand sign language?

“Hey Kaede,” he said. “Who’s this?”

“Oh!” She looked back at him, then grabbed hold of the other child’s hand and stepped aside to indicate them. “Dad, this is my friend Frisk! We met when I first moved here. We’ve been in the same class since Grade 2. They called to say they were coming…and bringing some friends.”

“Really? Wow. You, uh…you never mentioned them, you know.”

She scowled. “You would have met them yourself if you’d actually come to the last Parent’s Day instead of sending Origami Cyclone instead!”

She stuck her tongue out, and Kotetsu winced at the memory. There was no denying what a disaster that had been, and Kaede didn’t give him the chance to try – instead, she let him stew again on that particular screwup while she resumed talking to Frisk. But Frisk looked up at him and smiled, brief as summer lightning, before turning their attention back to Kaede in turn. That made Kotetsu feel better, at least enough that he remembered another situation at hand that needed handling.

He looked back at the monsters. He _really_ looked at them, and saw something there – especially in the two in the lead – that he could never fail to recognize. So Kotetsu said the only thing he could think of. He said the one thing that could unite parents across any lines of belief, lifestyle, and hopefully even species.

“Kids, huh?” he said, jerking a thumb at the two.

The two horned monsters laughed, the sounds leaving him reasonably certain at last that one was male and the other was female.

“Yes,” said the woman, turning her smile on Kotetsu now. “I am so glad that Frisk had a friend to come back to.”

“We are very sorry to have caused such a fuss,” said the man. “But that is part of why we brought Frisk along! They are our ambassador, you see. I’m sure they will be able to explain everything.”

“Though while those two are catching up,” the woman interjected. “Perhaps we could give that a try.”

She held out a hand. Kotetsu stared at it for only a second before he remembered to look back up at her. “Hello. My name is Toriel. What is yours’?”

The world seemed to stand still. Fate itself felt like it was wobbling, first one way and then the other. History had its eyes on the two of them, now. Kotetsu was piercingly aware of the responsibility weighing heavy on his shoulders. This time, however, he felt a little more certain that what he did next would prove himself worthy of it.

He grasped the offered hand in his. It was fluffy.

“The name’s Kotetsu!” he said, smiling at her, at them all. “And I guess it’s down to me to say welcome. You guys all want to come and have a drink, maybe? Looks like you had a long walk getting here.”

Maybe his mother would be able to talk the neighbors into putting their kettles on, too. Maybe that way, there would be enough tea for everyone, and maybe that would be just the right start this strange new world needed.

 


End file.
